WASHINGTON:U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Tuesday that “the word tragic doesn’t even begin to describe” an Israeli airstrike that triggered a fire in a tent camp in the Gaza city of Rafah, killing 45 Palestinians.
The remarks in response to a reporter’s question followed Israeli tank shelling of a tent camp in an evacuation area west of Rafah that killed at least 21 people on Tuesday, Gaza health authorities said. This further tested President Joe Biden’s promise to withhold weapons from Israel if the U.S. ally made a major invasion of Rafah that put refugees there at risk.
Harris, speaking at a ceremonial event in Washington, did not respond to a follow-up question about whether attacks in Rafah crossed a “red line.”
An air strike on Sunday set off a blaze in a tent camp in a western district of Rafah, killing at least 45 people. Israel said it had targeted two senior Hamas operatives and had not intended to cause civilian casualties.
The White House has not responded to emailed questions about Tuesday’s attack. On Monday, a White House spokesperson said the death of Palestinians was “heartbreaking,” that Israel needed to “take every precaution possible to protect civilians” and that it was trying to assess what had happened on Sunday.
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